


alone so long

by narcissacronin



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22023319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissacronin/pseuds/narcissacronin
Summary: nova feels very lonely after the supernova until adrian comes along :)
Relationships: Nova Artino | Nightmare/Adrian Everhart | Sketch
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	alone so long

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers for supernova!

Nova stared up at the ceiling in her plain room at Renegades headquarters, thoughts swirling. Her chest felt heavy with loneliness, and the feeling was starting to weigh on her.

In her seventeen years of life, Nova had grown quite intimate with the feeling of loneliness. Even as a small child she had learned to grow used to the feeling, to embrace it rather than fear it. But this...this was a bit different.

Yes, she had Adrian and her friends. But no one quite understood what she was going through. At least, that’s how it felt whenever she tried to talk about it. For the third time in her life, her world had crumbled. The first time being when she lost her family, second when she lost Ace for the first time, and third when she had learned that Ace was responsible for the deaths of her family—a fact she still hadn’t completely wrapped her head around.

For years, Nova had envisioned the many different ways she could get revenge for her family’s murder, all boiling down to causing harm to the Council in some way. But never in a million years could she have imagined that it was Ace who had her family’s blood on his hands.

Though a week had passed since the Supernova, everything was still fresh in her mind. The scenes kept replaying over and over, and she couldn’t stop thinking about Ace, either. She felt guilty for following him so blindly all these years. Though Nova knew she was being a bit unreasonable, she couldn’t help but feel that, in a way, she had betrayed her parents by doing so. Would they be proud of her? Would they—

A knock sounded at the door, jolting her from her thoughts.

“Nova?” called a familiar voice, followed by a slightly louder knock.

Nova stood and moved toward the door, opening it. Adrian stood on the other side. His lips were curved into a half-smile.

“Hi,” he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Hey,” she replied, leaning against the doorway. A second passed in silence before she asked, “What are you doing here? It’s nearly midnight.”

“I know,” he mumbled. His gaze fell to his feet and she could’ve sworn that he was blushing. “I just wanted to check on you. And apologize for not spending much time with you this past week. Everything’s been so chaotic and I keep losing track of time—” He cleared his throat. “Nova, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about, Adrian. I understand.” She forced a smile to her lips, setting her hand on Adrian’s arm for a second before letting it fall back to her side.

Nova stepped into the room and invited him inside, taking a seat on the cot. He shut the door behind himself and sat down next to her.

“How are you handling everything?” he asked, reaching for her hands.

“It’s been kind of hard,” she whispered. “Especially everything with Ace...” She trailed off, fighting back tears. “To—to think I idolized him all those years.” A shudder ran through her body and a single tear slipped down her cheek, though she quickly swiped it away.

“You were a child, Nova,” Adrian said, voice gentle. He wrapped both of her hands in his. “He manipulated and lied to you, it’s not your fault.”

Nova sniffled and dropped her head into her hands. He placed a hand on her lower back. “I  _ know _ , and that’s the worst part about it.” She slowly lifted her gaze to his, blinking back tears. “I just...I wish I could think about something else. It’s been nagging at me and I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.” Her bottom lip quivered as tears slipped down her cheeks.

Adrian pulled her into an embrace, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He whispered words of comfort and gently ran his hand through her hair. It wasn’t long until she started to forget about her worries and instead focused on  _ him _ : the slight scent of pine soap, how strong his arms felt around her, the warmth radiating from his presence.

“Adrian,” said Nova, softly. She pulled out of his arms, eyes searching his expression. He looked to be on the verge of tears. “Are you alright?”

He started to nod, then stopped. “It...it’s kind of like you said. Everything’s starting to weigh on me and I feel like I’m going to break soon. I can’t stop thinking about my mom, I just feel so  _ bad _ though I know it’s not my fault. Not really, at least.”

“Oh, Adrian.” Her heart ached for him.

They embraced again, holding onto each other tightly. Neither spoke for a long moment. A thousand different words sprung to Nova’s mind though she couldn’t bring herself to speak any of them.

When they finally pulled apart, Adrian glanced at the clock hanging above the door, yawning. It was past one AM now. He quickly said, “I’m sorry, I should probably be going soon. I didn’t mean to stay so long and keep you up.”

“Adrian, I don’t need sleep, remember? But you do, and you probably shouldn’t drive like this.” She hesitated. “Maybe you should stay here for the night.”

“Are you sure?”

Nova nodded, the smallest of smiles tugging at her lips. “Yes.”

They curled up together on her small cot, limbs tangled together. He had his arms around her and her head was nestled against his chest.

Suddenly, Nova Artino felt a little less alone.


End file.
